


The Beginning Place

by phoebesmum



Category: Sports Night
Genre: Divorce, Ficlet, Flash Fic, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoebesmum/pseuds/phoebesmum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything has a use-by date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beginning Place

**Author's Note:**

> Written May 2007; prompt: 'Happy endings'.

So. It's over and, he guesses, they should all be happy. Everything has a use-by date, even people, even relationships, and this one's dragged on long past the stage where there was any point in pretending; dead, but refusing to lie down, like a corpse in a bad zombie movie, shambling and slurring and shedding chunks of rotten skin, poisoning the air around it and everything it touches.

But still – it's not easy letting go. He knows why this moment's been put off for so long. There've been victims on both sides, innocent ones for the most part (some less so), and the healing's going to take a long, long while.

He's tried to stay out of it, the way he'd been told. That hasn't been easy, either, keeping his mouth shut, because, god knows, there were any number of things he _could_ have said. He's seen plenty, though, and heard even more, and he knows it hasn't been simple or straightforward. If he's honest with himself, he might even admit that the blame hasn't all been one-sided.

No need to be _too_ honest. He knows where his loyalties lie.

The front door opens, and Casey pushes through, arms wrapped around the, what, the 93rd packing crate of the day? For a guy moving into a one-room apartment, he sure has a lot of stuff. Knowing Casey as he does, Dan's pretty sure that he's spent the last few weeks carefully sifting through the contents of the house, dividing his and Lisa's property strictly into 'You wanted this, but _I_ paid for it' and 'Your mother gave us this; keep it'. Once Casey's settled in, Dan's going to have to sift through his CD collection, weed out all the chick music, carton it up and have it shipped back. There are standards to be maintained, and a newly single man can't be judged by Mariah Carey and found wanting. But that's another problem for another day.

He starts the engine running as Casey pops the trunk, somehow finds room to stash the box with all the others, slams the lid and comes around to Dan's window. "That's it now," he says; his voice sounds thick, clotted. Dan's never seen Casey cry, not in all the years he's known him, and he won't see it today, but it'll come close.

He just says, "Okay," and leans over to open the passenger side for Casey to slide in. Then he says, "All set?" and, when Casey nods, he puts the car in gear and pulls away.

They neither of them look back. And Casey's not looking anywhere, eyes fixed unseeing on the road ahead.

So he doesn't see the smile that Dan finds he can't quite hide.

This isn't an end. It's a beginning.

***


End file.
